Pratchett had Shakespeare's wit for making gracious levity of the human experience, and it held as true in the fantasy city of Ankh-Morpork as it did anywhere people are people. Last night I slipped from the shelf a nigh on 400 page tome just of Pratchett's cleverest dialog and turns of phrase. I slipped it from a bookshelf dedicated to his Discworld hardcovers, the audiobooks, the humorless Sky One adaptations and cartoons, the Paul Kidby art book, and as big a space as all of that takes up in my home, a bigger hollow is left now that he's gone.

It was not a surprise, at all. He was very outspoken as a proponent for assisted suicide, and we seemed to be only counting down the days until the UK changed its assisted suicide laws or the Alzheimer's became so bad that Pratchett was willing to die outside of English soil... he was, after all, knighted. It should make it better that he went peacefully and never had to make that choice, but it doesn't. It just doesn't make it worse.

Mort, Men at Arms, Night Watch, and Small Gods were my favorites. I cannot have just one favorite in the works of such a prolific writer, right up until the very, very end. It would be like asking who my favorite human being is in the world.

Mort was something I drew on for one of my writing prompts when I was first approved on E. The first story I pitched grew from that, but it never did take off. That's okay. I learned and grew from the experience. What I really mean to say is that Pratchett was and continues to be a great influence and inspiration.

There's a Polish company that makes Discworld 28mm miniatures for hobby painters. I recently got back into this hobby as a way to relax and center myself. I had been avoiding such a purchase since they run expensive, but if there was ever a time when I needed a tiny little Samuel Vimes under my brush, this is it.

Terry Pratchett had a wit that had been likened to Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut; however, he also had that rare gift of sagacity, the ability to not only put life and humanity under a microscope and attempt to make meaning of it all, but to explain his observations in such an entertaining way through the medium of good storytelling. Some sample quotes from his works:

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“A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.”― Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

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“It would seem that you have no useful skill or talent whatsoever," he said. "Have you thought of going into teaching?”― Terry Pratchett, Mort

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“You can't give her that!' she screamed. 'It's not safe!'IT'S A SWORD, said the Hogfather. THEY'RE NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE.'She's a child!' shouted Crumley.IT'S EDUCATIONAL.'What if she cuts herself?'THAT WILL BE AN IMPORTANT LESSON.”― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

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“The world rides through space on the back of a turtle. This is one of the great ancient world myths, found wherever men and turtles were gathered together; the four elephants were an Indo-European sophistication. The idea has been lying in the lumber rooms of legend for centuries. All I had to do was grab it and run away before the alarms went off. -- Terry Pratchett

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“He sat back and drank the really horrible tea the dwarfs made. Just for a moment there was an unusual feeling of bliss. Strange word, he thought. It's one of those words that described something that does not make a noise, but if it did make a noise would sound just like that. Bliss. It's like the sound of a soft meringue melting gently on a warm plate.”― Terry Pratchett, The Truth

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“Colon looked awkward, as if the bunched underwear of the past was tangling itself in the crotch of recollection.”― Terry Pratchett, Jingo

HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.